Post War Tensions

Post War Tensions

The USA: Said communism enslaved people to the state. Capitalism was based on freedom and democracy. 1.) Everybody should be free to make money themselves. 2.) Individuals are better at deciding what to make/sell than the state. 3.) Trade between countries makes everyone richer.

The USSR: Said that capitalism exploited the workers to make the rich even richer. Communism was based on fairness, 1.) Capitalism only makes some people rich by exploiting others. 2.)Individuals are not as strong as everyone working together for the same aim. 3.) The state should take control of the economy and run it to benefit everyone.

Grand Alliance Conferences

Teheran Conference (1943): Stalin wanted the Allies to attack Germany in Europe to take pressure off the USSR. Churchill wanted this attack to be in the balkans, but Stalin objected: the USSR should have influence in Eastern Europe, and the USA and Britain in Western Europe.

Yalta Conference (1945):It was agreed that the USSR would help defeat Japan, that all allies would work for democracy in Europes and that the UN would be set up to promote peace.

Potsdam (1945):Decisions were made on what to do with Germany: prosecute Nazis as war criminals, reduce the size of Germany by a qaurter and divide Germany up temporarily into French, British, US and Soviet quarters. Reparations to be taken from each zone.

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The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan

The Cold War was a battle of ideologies not armies. The USA was determined to stop the spread of communism, and the USSR was determined to defend itseld against Western attack. Europe was the centre of this 'battleground'.Truman's Concerns: 1. Europe was devastated after the war2. In many countries people had no money, no jobs and were feeling hopeless
3. Communism was attractive to people: it made sure everyone had enough
4. Many in Eastern Europes had been liberated from Nazi rule by the Soviets
5. Countries like Poland, Romania and Bulgaria had already has communist governments forced upon them.
6. Some governments were to poor to combat communist revolutionariesTruman Doctrine (1947): In a speech in 1947, Truman said why the USA should get involved. Communism was a bad thing as it meant poeple could not be free and so the USA must try to contain the spread of communism. The USA would provide money and troops to help poor countries combat communism takeovers.The Marshall Plan (1947): $13 billion from the USA would help to rebuild Europe/ Communism appealed to many and USSR deemed it as an attack on them.

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Satellite States, Cominform and Comecon

Between 1947 and 1949, Poland and Hungary became 'satellite states' under the control of the USSR.
At the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, the USSR agreed to free elections in the countries in its sphere of influence. The USSR thought people would choose communism in free elections however, most did not. The USSR fixed elections making sure the Communist Party won.

Cominform:Cominform stood for the Communist Information Bureau. Stalin set it up in 1947. The bearu organised all the communist parties in Europe and arranged their leadership so they would do what Moscow told them to. Cominform got rid of any opposition to the USSR's control in satellit states. It encouraged communist parties in Western countries to block Marshall Plan assistance. Comecon: Comecon stood for the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. Stalin set it up in 1949. It was the USSR's alternative to the Marshall Plan. It built up trade links between Comecon countries. It also prevented Comecon countries signing up to the Marshall Plan. Comecon included the USSR, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Albania and, from 1950, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

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The Berlin Blockade

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The Berlin Blockade

The US wanted Germany to be a strong, capitalist and united country to trade with and prevent the spread of communism. However, the USSR wanted Germany to be weak, communist and divided so that it would never be able to attack the USSR again. The USSR blocked all supplies into Berlin to show it had the power to stop a divided Germany from working.

The Berlin Airlift: West Berlin couldnt last for many days without supplies. It looked like the Western powers would have to pull out of Berlin - that would look weak; undermining the USA's image in particular. So Western powers responded with an airlift - thousands of tonnes of supplies were flown into Berlin.

The Berlin airlift made the USA appear peaceful and generous but it made the USSR appear aggressive and threatening. In September 1949, West Germany is officially formed with US support. In October 1949, East Germnay was officially formed as a Soviet state. In 1949, Western Europe countries and the USA set up NATO to counter the Soviet military threat. In 1955, the USSR formed the Warsaw Pact to counter the military threat from Nato.

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Soviet Control in Hungary

Impact of Soviet Rule:> Hungary suffered a lot under Stalin's control
> Any opposition in Hungary was ruthlessly wiped out> Food and industrial products were shipped to Russia
> Communist rule became very unpopularDe-Stalinisation:When Stalin died, Khrushchev took over. In 1956 Khrushchev hinted that control would relax. Hungarian started demonstrating against communist control. Khrushchev appointed a more liberal leader for Hungary: Imre Nagy.

Imre Nagy wanted reforms for Hungary which were: 1.) leave the Warsaw Pact 2.) no more communist government 3.) free elections, democracy 4.) UN protection from USSR
Khrushchev refused the demands - if Hungary left the Warsaw Pact other countries would follow: 1.) November 1956 Khrushchev sent 200,000 Soviet troops into Hungary 2.)Thousand were killed as a result 3.) Imre Nagy was tried and executed
Consequences: The USA supported Hungary's uprising with words and money. But USA couldnt send troops and it would have meant war. By 1956, USA and USSR has hydrogen bombs and USA didnt want to risk war. Hungary was on its own against USSR and gave in. Soviet control tightened across Eastern Europe.

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A Divided Berlin

After the war, Germany and Berlin was divided into four zones.
> Berlin was deep inside Soviet - controlled East Germany
> Divided Berlin gave the USA a foothold inside the Soviet Eastern Bloc
> Some Germans in East Germany did not like having a communist government
> There were better jobs with higher wages in the West
> It was easy to get to West Germany once you had reached the Western zones in Berlin
> Many Germans crossed over from the East to the West in Berlin

Reasons for attacking West Berlin:1. More Soviet troops than western troops around Berlin2. Soviet army could easily defeated a western allied army
3. The USSR had developed a H-bomb (1953)

Reasons for not attacking WestBerlin:1. USA had developed the H-bomb (1952) and 20 times more of them than the USSR2. USA has money to develop ad build B52 bombers

It meant that the USA could drop H-bombs on the USSR but not the other way round.

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The Berlin Wall

USSR demanded withdrawal:The Soviets couldnt continue to allow Germans to leave East Germany through Berlin. They announced in November 1958, that berlin was East German and that the western powers must leave the city in 6 months or else. The USA didnt want to leave Berlin as it would be humiliating. But it didnt want to start a war either. Instead, the USA suggested a conference to sort the problems out.

The Summits:USA and USSR met four times at big conferences called the summits: 1.) May 1959 in Geneva 2.) September 1959 3.) May 1960 4.) June 1961
The first two summits went fairly well, though nothing was agreed. However, the third summit was a disaster - a US spy plane had been shot down over the USSR and Eisenhower refused to apologize and the summit collapsed. The final summit was only agreed because there was a new US president but neither side was willing to back down. Kennedy began to prepare the USA for nuclear war.
Khrushchev backed down as he knew he couldnt win a nuclear war, so the western powers stayed in Berlin. Instead, the Berlin Wall was built from August 1961. Anyone who tried to escape was shot at and many were killed - it stopped East Germans from leaving for the West which solved a crisis. It meant that Khrushchev avoided war but still looked strong.

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The Cuban Missile Crisis: How Did It Start?

Cuba, the USA and the USSR:Before 1959, Cuba was very closely linked to the USA, for example, there were lots of US owened businesses. Then Cuba had a socialist revolution in 1959 and the USA refused to deal with the new government. Instead, Cuba started to build economic links with the USSR , by trading Soviet oil for Cuban sugar. The US relationship with Cuba deteriorated.

Bay of Pigs Incident - 17th April 1961:The CIA told Kennedy that the invasion would look like a Cuban revolt and that they had trained Cuban exiles and disguised old US planes as Cuban. They also said that Castro's control of Cuba was very weak and that many Cubans didnt like Castro. What actually happened was that the planes were recognised as US planes and were photographed with the information being published. The world knew that the USA had backed the invasion. Also, Castro knew of the invasion in advance and 1400 US backed troops met 20,000 of Castro's troops - the US backed down. Aswell, most Cubans didnt want their old leader, Batista, back again, because he had been corrupt.Overall, the chance of a friendly USA-Cuba relationship was ended. Castro announced that he was communist and Cuba and the USSR started building closer ties - including military defence for Cuba

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The Cuban Missile Crisis: The Discovery

Cuban Missile Sites:The USSR saw Cuba as a fix to a key strategic problem: the USA has missiles close to the USSR, but the USSR had no missiles close to the USA. Cuba saw the Soviet missiles as a great way to prevent the USA from invading Cuba again. In September 1962, Soviet ships carried nuclear warheads and missiles to Cuba. Then in October 1962, US spy planes photographed the Cuban missile sites. The US public learned that they were now in range of Soviet nuclear missiles and there was panic.

How should the USA respond?:1. Ignore the Cuban missiles: the USA also had many missile bases close to the USSR in Turkey2. Do a deal and get the USSR to withdraw from Cuba in return for the USA withdrawing from one of its missile bases close to the USSR
3. Invade Cuba: US troops would invade and get rid of Castro government
4. Nuclear attack: attack the USSR quickly before USSR could attack the USA
5. Blockade Cuba to stop any more missiles or equipment coming from the USSR
6. Destory Cuban missile sites. It could be done with airstrikes and so wouldnt need nuclear strikes or a land invasion
7. Warn Cstro that his actions put Cuba in grave danger and hope he would stop

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The Cuban Missile Crisis: The 13 Days

1962:1. 16th October: Kennedy is informed that US spy planes have found missile sites on Cuba2. 20th October: Kennedy decides against an attack and order a blockade of Cuba
3. 24th October: USSR says a bloackade is an act of aggression and its ships will ignore it
4. 25th October: USA and USSR prepare for immediate nuclear attack
5. 27th October: Cuba gets ready for invasion/ Khrushchev offers to remove missiles from Cuba if USA does the same for its Italy and Turkey bases/ US spy plane is shot down over Cuba and US hawks demand a retaliation/ Kennedy sets up a deal in which the USA would secretly withdrawn warheads from USA and USSR
6. 28th October: Khrushchev agrees to the deal

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The Cuban Missile Crisis: The 13 Days Consequences

Short - term Consequences:> Cuba came out okay but was let down by Soviet allies> USSR looked weak as no one knew about the USA's withdrawals
> US 'doves' came out well as US 'hawks' would have gone to war

Long - term Consequences:> The Hotline Agreement created a direct communication link between Washington and Moscow> Limited Test Ban Treaty in August 1963 meant both sides agreed to ban all nuclear weapon testing except for underground tests
> In 1963, Kennedy gave a speech about working with the USSR to focus on their 'common interests'
> However, the USSR was determined to catch up with the USA in the arms ace and had achieved this by 1965. This meant Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) War would be so terrible that it must be avoided at all costs
> Khrushchev as forced from power in 1964